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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Ben McAdams, said Wednesday he will vote for a resolution laying out the House Democrats’ rules for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, warning the allegations against the president set a “dangerous precedent for our country” if true.
“This is not a vote on whether or not to impeach the president This is a vote that says, look, there are serious allegations. This is a serious time for our country. Allegations have been raised that the president has abused his power and may have harmed our national security for his own personal gain and to help his reelection,” he said.
McAdams, who represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District, told KSL Newsradio that Congress needs “to get to the bottom of this. The public deserves to see exactly what happened and then we can make a decision. But I don’t think we should at this point be pre-judging the outcome, either yes or no,” on impeaching Trump.
He also took a shot at members of his own party, saying Democrats have been calling for the president’s impeachment over a number of disagreements for too long.
“That is wrong. If you don’t like a president’s policies, if you don’t like his demeanor, the solution to that is to vote against him. So I think it feels a little bit that the Democrats have been crying wolf for too long and that’s really disappointing,” McAdams said. “People are a little bit numb to it and we can’t be numb.”
He said he opposed impeachment until the current allegations surfaced, surrounding Trump’s pressuring of Ukrainian leaders to investigate a Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential race, former Vice President Joe Biden, by apparently withholding military aid.
“Imagine now we open the door to a presidential candidate reaching out to foreign countries to set our foreign policy based on whether they will help in the presidential election,” McAdams said, adding “if in fact that’s what was happening, that’s a dangerous precedent for our country.”
He said to further study those allegations, the impeachment inquiry already underway behind closed doors needs to be formalized with the rules in the resolution, seen as opening up hearings and allowing the president due process as the House readies possible articles of impeachment that would go to the Senate for a trial.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told CNBC Wednesday he’s “probably going to become a juror, if you will, in this process. As a result, I’m doing my very best to keep an open mind” and declined to answer whether the allegations against the president rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
“In my view, it’s time for me to stay silent on impeachment until the process is complete,” Romney said. “If articles of impeachment come, I’ll review the facts in depth before I make my decision.”
Last week, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told a caller during a Facebook Live tele-town hall that “based on evidence that I’ve seen, that I’ve reviewed, I don’t see anything that’s impeachable. That doesn’t mean the case is decided. They’re still building a record” through a process that he said has excluded the public and some House members.
He said it takes a two-thirds vote of the Senate to remove an impeached president, “an extraordinary step that should not be taken lightly.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has set Thursday for what would be the first vote by representatives on the impeachment inquiry. Utah Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Stewart have already come out against the resolution, while Rep. John Curtis, also R-Utah, has not said how he’ll vote.
The National Republican Congressional Committee’s Torunn Sinclair quickly criticized McAdams for supporting the resolution, claiming the Utah congressman “just announced he will cast his first vote to impeach and remove President Trump from office” and warning “It’s going to cost McAdams his seat next November.”
McAdams took his time deciding whether to support the impeachment inquiry after it was announced by Pelosi in late September. He has been targeted by the Trump reelection campaign, including with a rally outside his West Jordan congressional office that ended up drawing more opponents of the president than supporters.
Also Wednesday, the United Utah Party called on all of the state’s House members to vote for the impeachment inquiry resolution. Chairman Richard Davis said in a statement the vote should be seen as a recognition that the allegations made against Trump merit a formal investigation.
“If these allegations are true, they represent a dangerous misuse of presidential power,” Davis said, adding: “All members of Congress should want to get to the bottom of these allegations to determine whether they are accurate. A vote to stop this inquiry at the outset would demonstrate a loyalty to party over principle.”
A new UtahPolicy.com poll shows 4th Congressional District voters are pretty evenly split over whether they would support a Republican or Democratic candidate in 2020, with 37% saying they’d vote for the GOP candidate in the race and 35% the Democrat.
Eight percent said they would vote for someone not from the major political parties while 3% said they wanted yet another option and 17% just didn’t know how they would cast their ballot if the election were held today. The poll did not ask voters about specific candidates, just which party voters preferred in the election.
The results are seen as good news for McAdams, who won the seat last year by defeating two-term Republican Rep. Mia Love by less than 700 votes in a district where, like the rest of the state, GOP candidates have a double-digit advantage.
Democratic candidates fall further behind Republicans in Utah’s other three congressional districts, all represented by Republicans, with the support of 21% to 42% for a Republican candidate in District 1; 37% to 45% in District 2; and 22% to 46% in District 3.
The poll was conducted by Y2Analytics for the online political news source Sept. 25-Oct. 8 of a total of 979 registered Utah voters, including 252 in District 4. The margin of error for the subgroups ranges from plus or minus 6 to 7 percentage points based on sample size.
Contributing: Dennis Romboy
